It’s National Singles’ Day, which is the perfect day for the Giants. They’re 9th in MLB (5th in the National League) in singles hit (865). Hitting singles is, uh, it’s sort of their thing.
Lineups:
Some baseball to go with your breakfast
— San Francisco Giants (@SFGiants) September 22, 2018
First pitch - 10:05 AM PDT ⚾️
@MLBONFOX
@KNBR
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Will Joe Panik play such an amazing first base that in 10 years we rename this site to the Panik Papers? Doubtful! But let’s hope Joltin’ Joe is more fun than tragic over there.
Let's grab the series win!
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) September 22, 2018
⏰ 12:05 PM CT
@UncleCharlie50
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Matt Adams doesn’t get a start, but that just means he looms...
Dereck Rodríguez (6-4, 3.37 FIP), meanwhile, has lost 3 of his last 4 starts despite allowing only one earned run in each of the last three and six overall. His 1.00 WHIP (29 hits and 14 walks allowed in 43.1 innings) over his last 7 starts is excellent, although with only 32 strikeouts, his barely over 2:1 strikeouts to walks ratio is a little bit unsettling. As we see, the FIP tells the story. Despite his 2.30 ERA on the season, he’s probably due to give up some more runs. It doesn’t really matter how he pitches today, though, since the Cardinals are going to win the game. When you think about it, nothing the Giants do matters.
This will be Adam Wainwright’s (2-3, 5.05 FIP) third start since missing three and a half months (middle of May through August) with right elbow inflammation. He threw 101 pitches in his last start, which was on September 16th and against the Dodgers, striking out nine in six innings. He’ll probably have a great day against a bunch of singles hitters and everybody will cheer how the Cardinals are going to the playoffs on the strength of their everything — nothing bad has ever happened to the Cardinals. Or will ever!
A loss today guarantees that the Giants will have won only one road trip (that is, two or more consecutive series played on the road) the entire season. My goodness.